Dissension, a Reflection on Mark 3:20-35

Jesus has caused such a stir that people were talking, saying that he had lost his mind. His family tried to rescue him from himself. Religious authorities accuse him of being in league with the devil.

His family wants to protect him by shutting him up. The others don't want to protect him but they do want him to shut up.


Religious people still become offended. Loving people still become protective.


The pattern of becoming offending and becoming protective can disrupt relationships between those who are satisfied with the way things are organized now and those who are convinced that those things must be changed immediately. Read Phyllis Tickle's Great Emergence . She describes the massive transformations that shake the Christian Church every 500 years.


When we are living through a time of division, how do we discern the correct path? Jesus said that we would be forgiven for our sins and blasphemies--except for blasphemies against the Holy Spirit. The New Interpreter's Bible explains this by saying:

It is forgivable to wrongly judge the evil as good, but it is unforgivable to judge the good as evil.

Good rule for religious, political, and social disputes, don't you think?